


One Thing Left To Say

by off_the_bails



Category: Cricket RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-04-28
Packaged: 2018-01-21 02:05:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1533653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/off_the_bails/pseuds/off_the_bails
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Faulkner family household is full of life and chaos as big brother Jimmy is about to set off for the T20 series in South Africa, but one family member can't quite bring herself to join in the celebrations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Thing Left To Say

Abbey hurriedly followed her mum through the doorway, pushing the wooden frame shut behind her and looking back though the glass at the rain that was beginning to fall outside. Ready to collapse on her bed after a long day at school she began to lug her heavy schoolbag towards the staircase that would her lead her to trackies and her laptop.

“Oh Abbs!” Her mum called out just as Abbey was lifting her foot to the first step and was instead forced by years of built up obedience to swing around laboriously.

“Yeah?” She questioned in response, fixing her mum with her best ‘do I look like I care?’ face.

“Your brother said he’s going to come over after dinner, so I want you get all of your homework out the way now-“ She continued with her voice rising as Abbey started to make noises of complaint. “and don’t give me any of your wingeing! Because I’ve invited your grandparents over, and who knows how long it will be until we see him again once he leaves for South Africa! No you are not the only member of this family Abbey Grace Faulkner.”

As usual Abbey was brought to silence by her mother’s impressive vocal techniques which had single-handedly out shone argument after argument of Abbey’s over her teenage career. She stood silently, burning to express the words which had been stacking up within her over the last year as news of Jimmy doing this and Jimmy doing that had poured in and gradually overshadowed her very existence until she wasn’t even sure if her parents saw her anymore.

Abbey was just opening her lips to express something of the sort when she was once again interrupted by her mother who was now standing with her hands threateningly on her hips.

“And If I come up those stairs in twenty minutes to find you browsing tumblr or god forbid writing fanfiction – there will be consequences young lady!”

“Alright! Alright!” Abbey turned back towards the stairs, throwing her arms up in defeat. “I’ll do my homework now while I’m wet and starving from my long day at school! I’ll answer the 15 maths questions that get set every single night!” She continued to rant as she began climbing the stairs. “Who else works 7 hours a day, 5 days a week in this house! Certainly not golden boy James who spends his time running around on a sports field! Drinking beer and lying around shirtless in his bachelor pad! Oh the poor soul! Fancy him missing a chance to see the whole family because his selfish sister was doing her homework!”

She shouldered open the door to her bedroom and heavily dropped her bag onto the floor. She looked up to see three fully grown men lying splayed across her single bed, all wearing cricket training gear and all in various levels of wet-ness.

“Serioulsy?” She questioned of the cosmos. “SERIOUSLY?” She exclaimed at the sight of her one-and-only brother who was sitting in-between the two other men on the bed and immediately jumped up shushing her and frantically moving to close the door.

“What the hell are you doing in my room James Faulkner?” She trailed him with her eyes as he walked back into the centre of the room. “In my one abode of sacred privacy? A teenage girl’s only shelter from the harsh patriarchy which exists outside its walls? The only place where I can be free to express my individual flair and complex emotions? Where there should be not a single scent of testoster-“

“Oh calm down Abbs, there’s no need to be such a drama queen!”

Abbey was about to voice her distinct disagreement with that statement when he pulled her into a giant hug – one almost big enough to make up for the weeks it had been since they’d seen each other.

“And would you keep your big mouth shut, I don’t want mum to know I’m here yet.” He ruffled her hair as he pulled back, purposely messing up her pony tail with that dopey grin on his face. Abbey pushed him away and walked over to the mirrored door of her cupboard to assess the damage.

“Why don’t you want mum to know you’re here? She’s got a whole family bar mitzvah planned for you tonight.” She pulled out her hair tie and put it between her teeth – it turned out the rain had already ruined her hair long before Jimmy got his hands on it.

“That’s exactly the reason I don’t want her to know – she told me expressly that this was a family event and not to bring any of the boys over.”

Abbey looked past herself in the mirror to see her bed where George Bailey was watching their conversation with amusement and Ed Cowan was politely trying to look interested in the copy of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which she had left lying around. She went back to re-pulling up her hair.

“Then why did you bring the boys over?”

“Well…” She couldn’t see Jimmy’s face but she could hear the grin in his voice. “Because they wanted to see you.”

Abbey didn’t believe that statement for a second. She carefully finished pulling her hair through the band to make a new – perfect – ponytail before turning around to face the three sheepish grins which were waiting for her response.

“Are you kidding me? I mean are you seriously trying to drive me crazy Jim? Because if you think for one second that I am going harbour your fugitive friends in this insane warzone of a household - purely because it rained on your training session and you’re all too lazy to drive to your own houses – and be happy about it, then you are going to be sorely disappointed. I do not keep up the organisation of this room so that it can house 13 year olds in the bodies of full grown men, and I did not fight so hard for this upstairs bedroom so that you could directly disobey your own mother who has put her heart and soul into raising you to be the man you are today! No! That’s for me, Abbey-Grace-Faulkner to do! Not for you – James-Peter-Cricket-Australia!”

George and Ed broke into applause at the end of her tirade, both well used to the Faulkner family antics and recognising a particularly good speech when they heard one. Abbey haughtily stalked over to her desk and resolutely sat down not looking at Jimmy as she passed. She had yelled at him plenty of times in her life, but something about him turning up unexpectedly had engaged a strange frustration within her.

Reaching down to where she had left her school bag she began aggressively pulling out various books and stationary items and dumping them haphazardly on the desk. Abbey flinched slightly when she felt an unexpected hand on her right shoulder. The strong hand squeezed down in a distantly familiar gesture – Jimmy’s signature ‘big brother’ move – before a second hand came down on her other side, an –overlarge in Abbey’s opinion- head following close behind it and hanging over her left shoulder.  
“So what you’re saying is… you will harbour us. You just won’t be happy about it-“

Jimmy sprung back quickly as Abbey flung her hand upwards, just managing to slap him in the face before he careened back towards his friends on the bed, laughing heartily.

Doing her best to hold back a grin, Abbey flipped open her maths book, pulled out a pencil, and began her homework, pointedly ignoring any movement from behind her.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

“So you make y the subject of both equations… and then you just solve it algebraically?”

“Yep, pretty much.” Abbey nodded along with Ed as he insisted on mastering the art of simultaneous equations – for what reason she had no idea. It had been 20 minutes since she had tried to start her homework and she had finished a whole sum total of two questions. Of course Ed had come to sit on the edge of her desk under the premise of ‘helping her with her work’, but a professional cricket player who wrote books in his spare time wasn’t necessarily the best maths tutor.

Also the sounds of Jimmy being the most annoying human being ever weren’t particularly conductive to high academic achievement. From the strange snippets of conversation she had heard it sounded like he was trying relentlessly to get a rise out of George but the Tasmanian Captain wasn’t taking the bait.

“Wait, but what happens to the 3? It just disappears…” Ed was now staring confusedly at her text book which he was holding in front of himself as though it was a novel filled with mind encapsulating plot twists.

“Come on Fred give it a break, we all know you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed.” Jimmy was grinning as he jibed his team mate from where he was sitting, cross-legged on the bed. George was taking up most of the mattress with his feet resting in Jimmy’s lap and the rest of his body extending up to where his hands were linked behind his head and resting on Abbey’s pillow.

Although he looked to be taking a nap on her bed – something which seemed far too familiar for a friend of her brother-who-didn’t-even-live-there-anymore – George lifted up a finger into the air, not unlike a cricket umpire, and without opening his eyes stated calmly, “I think we should all remember who in this room has completed a university degree – and who has not.”

“Are you saying that you really don’t think that I could do a uni degree if I wanted?” Jimmy pretended to sound put out, but those in the room who still had their eyes open could clearly see that this was not the case. George of course also happened to be educated enough in the ways of James Faulkner to see through the charade.

“I’m not saying that you couldn’t, all I am saying is that you have not, thus far, proven that you can.”

“Well then, I’d better get onto that, hadn’t I?” Jimmy stood up, picking up George’s feet and earning several socked kicks in the process and jogged enthusiastically over to Abbey’s desk.

“Oh nonononono.” Abbey groaned as he decided to sit on her lap and pull whatever book happened to be closest towards himself as though it were a plate of food he was about to devour.

“sooooo…linear equ-ati-ons-ss…” he tried to calmly peruse the maths book which he had picked up, as Abbey put her best efforts into pushing him off of the chair.

“Hey calm down there Abs, million dollar body here, handle with care. “ He twisted around to grin at her, putting his body out of balance just as Abbey playfully shoved him in the back and he fell onto the floor with a crash.

“Ugh, really Abs?” He stared up at her dolefully from where he had landed with his right shoulder lying on Ed’s feet and his leg somehow still on the chair and on Abbey. She spun back around to be facing the desk, pushing his leg off in the process and remarked “Well you shouldn’t’ve have sat on me should you?”

As she went to pick her pencil back up loud music suddenly filled the room. Abbey identified the song as Party in the USA and looked on incredulously as Jimmy sat up.

“Chuck us the phone Bailes.” He requested and clapped his hands together gesturing for George to throw it to him. Beginning to laugh George threw the phone to Jimmy on the floor who caught it and immediately answered without looking at the caller ID.

“Gosh is that really your ringtone Jimmy? Miley Cyrus?”

“Mum! Hey! Wait… you could hear that?” Jimmy looked up at Abbey apprehensively as she held a hand over her mouth trying not to laugh at the fact that he had been caught red handed.

“Yes, and I heard the numerous voices coming down through my ceiling – more than one of them male, am I correct?”

“ah… well you might have thought that but the fact is, you were actually extremely lucky to bear witness to my brilliant imitations of popular Tasmanian cricket personalities such as George Bailey and Ed Cowan. I’ve been saving them up for my retirement in radio if you were wondering why you’ve never heard them before.”

“Oh right I see, well why don’t you bring yourself and your ‘imitations’ down to help me cook dinner seeing as you’re here. I never get to see you any more so I don’t want to miss a minute of it alright?”

“Of course mum, also I’m glad to see you’re practising the use of your mobile now, I wasn’t sure if you would work out how to charge it without me around-“

Abbey could hear her mother laughing through the phone before it suddenly cut off – the call disconnected.

“Well, maybe I spoke too soon; it would appear as if she still doesn’t know how to use the thing.” Jimmy stood up, tucking his phone into the pocket of his tracksuit pants and heading towards the door.

“Come on guys! The kitchen calls!” Abbey watched the three of them walk out of her room with a strange feeling in her stomach. She couldn’t help but wonder how her mother could completely overlook her and pull Jimmy away for herself without even considering if Abbey would want to spend some time with her brother. And how had she been perfectly fine with Jimmy bringing his friends over when he had been directly told not to? If she had tried to pull a stunt like that it would have ended in a giant shouting match not a few peals of laughter and a ‘never mind darling’.

Frustrated, Abbey kicked her foot against the leg of her desk and tried to go back to doing her work, the room behind her now seeming awfully empty.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

After hearing a polite knock on her bedroom door Abbey looked up to see the face of George Bailey peeking through the gap between the door and its frame.

“Hey Abbs,” he gave her one of his classic GB grins. “Ed and I are heading off now, but they sent me up here to tell you they’re gonna eat.”

“Oh,” she looked up at the clock which hung above the door and was surprised to see that it was already ten past seven.

“My grandparents are here?” she inquired, wondering why no-one had come to get her earlier.

“Oh yeah,” George pushed the door open a little further leaning against the frame. “Jimmy’s been sweetening them up with all the glory stories.”

“Oh, right.” Abbey felt her mood sink as she heard a chorus of laughter echoing up from the kitchen. She’d endured enough ‘Jimmy going away’ parties in her lifetime to know that they were not awfully enjoyable for the underwhelming younger sibling. George pushed himself back up from against the door frame and gave her a sympathetic smile although she could tell he had no understanding of why she was upset.

“I’d love to stay but I don’t think you mum would love it so much so… time to make an exit.” He gestured back over his shoulder and turned to leave but Abbey quickly stood up from her desk chair, a strange ache in her heart.

“Wait!” He spun around comically to fix her with a dramatic stare.

“What’s wrong!” He swivelled theatrically, looking from left to right. “Is someone coming!?”

Abbey felt the corners of her lips sliding up at the familiar slapstick. “No silly – you forgot to give me a hug before you go.” His posture softened at her words and he stepped forward opening his arms to her.

“Of course Abbs.” He murmured as she accepted the embrace, a feeling slowly creeping up on her, as though maybe something was coming, something she wasn’t really ready to face.

“ABBEY GRACE YOUR DINNER’S GETTING COLD!” Her mother’s shrill voice interrupted the feeling and pulling out of the hug, George gave her a faux guilty look.

“We better get down there or they might forget about you completely!” he whispered, flashing her a smile as he began to walk towards the staircase.

You don’t know how true that statement is. Abbey thought wryly as she quickly followed him down the stairs.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The meal passed with Abbey silently picking at her food as everybody else continually erupted into laughter, tears or praise for Jimmy. Her grandparents had gone on and on about how much he had grown up, without seeming to spare a thought for the fact that she was one who was still actually growing.

She could still feel something horrible inside her towards Jimmy that she didn’t want to feel. Yes she was frustrated at her family for favouring him over her, and yes she was angry at him for taking it in his stride without a second thought - and yet – he was still her brother, she shouldn’t feel so harshly towards him.

“Haha! Remember that Abbs!” She pulled her head up quickly and looked to Jimmy who was grinning at her like a maniac from across the table. “That time I beat you at SingStar! You were soooo annoyed.”

“Aha, yeah.” Abbey laughed along half-heartedly. She had felt a rough twist in her gut at the memory and she hated herself for it. Every time she heard him laugh, or talk about his endless travels all over the world, she felt increasingly sick inside, and withdrew into herself more and more.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

After dinner, Abbey stood alone at the sink, washing the pile of dishes that had been built up over the course of the evening. She heard someone walking behind her and turned around, in the process knocking a glass off the bench which catapulted into the ground and broke into a thousand pieces. She watched Jimmy who had just entered the room as he stared at the glass for a second before turning away and pulling a tea towel out from the drawer. Abbey quickly turned back to the sink feeling a wave of emotions roll up through her body and form into a lump at the base of her throat.

“Just leave that for a second.” He stated softly, stepping around the shattered glass and picking up a plate to begin drying it. “I’m um, I’m gonna be heading off soon, and, I wanted to say goodbye properly this time.” He put the plate down on the bench with a sigh and turned towards her, leaning his hip against the sink. “I know with previous tours I’ve just kinda run away without really processing the fact that I’m leaving, but this time,” Abbey heard him take a deep breath with her eyes still fixed on the soapy water floating before her, “this time, I’m gonna be going to South Africa, and then to Bangladesh, and then to India, and I’m not going to see you at all for so long, a really long time actually but, the thing is, it already feels like so long since I’ve seen you Abbey. Even when I’m here we never really talk to each other – not like we used to. And every time I remember us doing something together, or even worse I imagine being on the other side of the world to you I just get this sick feeling in my stomach and I hate it and I couldn’t stand the idea of leaving without telling you that I will really miss you Abbey. I already miss you. I know you’re nearly ten years younger than me but it never felt that long because we were so close. You were my little buddy, who always cheered me up, and always had a song in her heart, or a fantasy world to chase the bad things away and I miss you so much. Abbey please say something.”

Abbey realised she had been staring at the same spot throughout his entire speech. But she couldn’t move. The feeling that had been gnawing away at her all night was back and stronger than ever, but she realised that it wasn’t because she was jealous of Jimmy, or angry at him.

“I have nothing to say Jim,” She looked up at him through her blue blurry eyes to be met by a mirroring pair staring back at her, “because everything you just said is exactly how I feel too.” She stared into his eyes until she couldn’t help but laugh. “I literally cannot think of a thing to say and it is the strangest feeling ever!” She laughed, or sobbed, or made some sort of loud noise as she fell towards her brother, pulling him into the biggest hug she had ever given in her life.

“You’re the best.” They both said simultaneously as they pulled out of the hug –their childhood equivalent to the cheesy ‘I love you’- before staring at each other and both half yelling “Jinx!’ before dissolving into fits of laughter and fleetingly starting a soap stud fight which was quickly brought to an end when Jimmy knocked another glass off the bench and it shattered sharply, joining the shards on the floor.

“You know, I thought we’d become endlessly different over the past few years, but turns out we’re still pretty similar after all.”


End file.
